


Dark Days

by Ihere



Series: PoliceForcestuck [20]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Corruption, Death, Destruction, F/F, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Panic, Romance, Sacrifice, implied rape
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-24
Updated: 2015-01-25
Packaged: 2018-01-06 00:00:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1100087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ihere/pseuds/Ihere
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everything sucks. Everything is ruined.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. ONE

Aradia brushes her hair back as she sits in a chair opposite to the Chief of Police. Both are uncomfortable by the situation. She sips the water that was offered not much earlier. “I guess what I am trying to say is . . thank you.” 

Chief Zahhak takes a deep breath, “I was acting as an enforcer of the law, but you’re welcome. Just keep safe,” he adds as an afterthought. “Other people would have . . taken advantaged of your situation.”

“I know. I was lucky,” she looks down at her hands that are on her lap. “The man, Dave, was relieved to hear I was okay when I called him.”

“Are you-“ he coughs, “on ‘personal terms?’” Aradia looks at him confused. “Err by that I mean are you planning on seeing him again anytime soon?”

She seems more interested with something on his desk, “I don’t know.” They keep silent for a minute. “Yesterday, when I woke up, I’m sorry I hit you.”

“You were confused and hung over. I don’t blame you,” he assures. 

“It’s just . . when I got home and called Dave and he explained what happened . . I realized I had mistaken you. You’re not perfect Equius, but you’re not . . that.”

The large troll takes a deep breath, “Sometimes I don’t know what to do with myself. This job is getting too much for me. I’m starting to fall behind on some of my officers. I wonder how long it will be before they take my place . . And I want them too. I’m just too . . distracted,” he looks at her. It has been a long time sense he opened up to her.

And she looks at him, “I am too.” Aradia extends a hand to lightly touch his, “I do know one thing for sure, you love me. You love me and you’ll protect me.” Equius stares at her with a weakened look. “But would you walk outside your office hand-in-hand with me?”

No response.

Aradia withdraws, “Then I don’t-can’t know if I love you. I know I did, but I don’t know if I could go back to that.” She stands up, “It would be best if we returned to how we were. I just owed you this much. Goodbye.” 

She opens the door to find behind it a surprised Officer Harley. Embarrassed, the troll leaves the room passing the human.

Chief Zahhak would have told Officer Harley that Aradia was just there for a small interview. Or he would have asked her how much she heard. But it doesn’t matter with Harley, she knows enough. 

“So,” she begins, Harley knows enough to keep quiet. “I have the file over that suicide outside of Skaia,” she hands it to him. The chief looks it over as she continues, “Nothing significant, although it is sad. I wished someone could have helped him.”

“Anything else?” he asks solemnly. 

“Weeell . . I do have a slight request.” Chief Zahhak puts the folder down to listen to his officer. “I was thinking about spending a couple of days up in the Capital, for work!”

“And why would you want to go to the Capital alone?”

“Oh I wouldn’t be alone!”

The chief frowns, “I suppose you want to bring Serket along with?” He knows of their peculiar relationship. Equius cannot even fathom how that was conceived. 

“Actually no,” Officer Harley says. “I was thinking of bring Vantas along.”

“So what possible reason could you have to have two of my officers waste their time in the Capital?”

“We won’t waste our time, sir!” Officer Harley argues. “I want to have a meeting with the chief over at the Capital police station, and quite possibly with the mayor! I want see if we can arrange a symbiotic relationship where we demand and they supply the needs to help keep Skaia’s protection in tack!”

Chief Zahhak frowns, “And what do you mean by that?”

“It’s no mystery that Skaia is in need of some serious aid. We’re low on supplies and hands. Even Mayor Peixes agrees! And isn’t that part of the reason why I came here? Too add to a far too small police force?”

“You believe that you are quiet valuable, don’t you?” Jade does not respond. “Now why are you and Officer Vantas volunteering?”

“I’m most familiar with the police in the Capital, and I’ve kept relations with them, sir! Not to mention that Vantas is a skilled officer who can convince anyone to help us. And don’t forget that we’re both from the Capital, so it might help to have in mind.” The Capital is a tad prestigious. 

“And what makes you think that the mayor and the police chief of the Capital will see you?”

“I asked one of my friends on the force there to ask their chief and-“

“You proceed with your plan without telling me?!” 

Jade is shaken, “I-I . . yes?”

“And what was going to happen if I’d say no? You would have not only embarrassed yourself but everyone on this force!”

“Does it help that the chief is interested and is going to convince the mayor?”

“No it does not!” The chief rubs his face, “Humor me, what were you planning on doing if I said no? Threaten me?”

“Oh no! I would never do that!” Harley answers sincerely. Though Vriska did prod her to.

The chief sighs, “When?”

“Tomorrow if we can.”

He waves her off, “Just go.”

“Thank you sir!” And she turns around to leave. 

Officer Harley rushes out to the office to meet her friends around her desk, “Vriska it worked!”

The trolls smiles at her moirail, “Told you it would.”

Officer Vantas is more focused on his work, “What worked?” he questions feeling drained. 

Jade answers giddy, “We’re going to the Capital for a couple of days to meet the chief and quite possibly the mayor!” 

Everything that he was doing stops, “What?”

“We’re going to convince the Capital to help us out! You were complaining that it needed to be done so . . .”

“And you didn’t think to ask me?”

“I knew you wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t out of your hands. And admit it, you want to go. You love to complain-I mean persuade.”

Officer Vantas rolls his eyes, “Why would I want to go the Capital with you and Vriska?”

“I’m not going,” Vriska answers with a smirk. 

“Oh.” Everything comes back hitting Karkat in the head. “I’ll go I guess.” He stands up, “I need to make a phone call.” 

Kanaya walks up from behind Karkat and pushes him back around, “I’m sorry Mr. Vantas, but I need you here for a quick second!”

Karkat is too distracted to really care, “Why?”

Kanaya reveals white box holding a small cupcake with a wax candle one on top, “To celebrate Jade’s one year anniversary with us!” She grabs a lighter from Karkat’s pocket, which she’s seen him pull out oh so many times, and lights the candle. “I’ll be honest, we don’t do many of these here unless it’s a very special occasion. Chief Zahhak’s orders. But I’d say that Jade is special enough to me. Also we’re going to keep this short,” she adds quickly. 

Jade smiles, “Thank you Kanaya! I-I didn’t realize that I’ve been here for a whole year.” She looks over at Vriska, “Wait! Doesn’t this make it your anniversary too?”

A horrible wave of realization hits Vriska, “Fuck. I’ve been here for a year?”

Now Kanaya starts to look embarrassed, “Oh! I completely forgot your cupcake . . .”

“Nah,” Vriska says nonchalantly, “I don’t care. It’s not like I’m even a cop.”

“Okay, well we’ll add you as part of the celebration!”

Jade looks up confused, “Celebration?”

“Yes! I thought that tonight we could gather our friends and have a small party! What do you say?” 

Vriska doesn’t look like she wants to answer, but luckily Jade saves her, “I’m so sorry Kanaya! But Vriska and I have important plans. How about we talk about when I get back?”

“Get back?”

“Listen,” Karkat interrupts, “this conversation is great, but I really need to go make a phone call.” He doesn’t wait to be excused, instead he just walks away as quickly as he can.

“We’re leaving tomorrow afternoon!” Jade calls out. 

As he leaves he can hear Jade telling start to tell Kanaya the story, but all that’s running through his mind is . . .

“Time alone with Jade. Just you and Jade. No Vriska to interfere. Sure there will be work, but there will be Jade. Alone with Jade.” Karkat presses speed dial on his phone and the other line picks up.

“Whut up?”

“Gamzee I’m leaving tomorrow to go to the Capital with Jade. Private time with Jade. There will be work, but also time with Jade. Gamzee I’m freaking out right now,” Karkat starts to pull on his hair out of stress. 

“Whoa calm down bro. This is a good thing! Just remember that.”

“It’s just . . she’s arranged this whole thing and she mentioned yesterday how she broke up with that guy and was ready to look for someone else. Do you think?”

“I think this is the best time my motherfucking bro can convince a pretty chicka that he has the hots for her.”

“Oh man what will I wear? Jade has seen just about every good outfit that I have and those didn’t impress her. I don’t even have a lot of nice clothes. Should I buy something? But I don’t have very much money to spend.”

“Nah bro, you just need to relax. Your moirail here is gonna tell you what happens when you go. You’re gonna chat. Laugh at a few jokes like a bunch of motherfuckers. You’ll both look at each other like in those movies you watch. And just . . fuck you both won’t be able to contain your feelings for each other and you’ll grab her from behind and fuck her.”

Karkat sighs, “You almost had something there Gamzee.”

“Sweet.”

A few short hours later Vriska and Jade walk side by side in the streets of Skaia.

Jade looks at her moirail, “How do you feel?”

Vriska rolls her eyes, “My stomach is cramping into knots, I want to puke my heart out and I have a headache that makes me want to blow my brains out.”  
The two stop short of the hospital entrance. Jade grabs her friend’s arm, “Wait, are you sure you’re okay with this?”

A deep breath is taken, “It’s been too long. And I’m not the only one that needs to move on.”

When they arrive to John’s room, they find that it is not empty. An older man looks at the two, “Hello Vriska . . . Jade,” he says with tired eyes.

“Mr. Egbert,” she addresses. Jade nods back

He takes a fatigued breath, “It’s time.”

Vriska walks over with Jade looped arm in arm, “I know.” She places a hesitant hand on his shoulder, “This will be good. For John.”

“I know.” He looks back at his son, “I just hoped, constantly hoped, that he’d wake up. That I could apologize to him. But that’s selfish.” He shakes his head in anger, “And that’s all he’ll ever remember me as, selfish. Always, I was too invested in my own morals to care about my own son.” Mr. Egbert calms down a bit, “I almost done with my goodbye.” He leans back down to the patient, “I love you son. Tell your mother and nanna I that I miss them.” The father kisses the son he raised on the forehead and then excuses himself outside the room.

Vriska scratches her face uncomfortably, “My turn.” She sits down on the bed.

“Do you me to leave?” Jade asks.

“Not yet,” she responds not taking her eyes off her fiancé. “I’m sorry John, I have a lot of regrets. Ones that I made when I lost you. Ones that I didn’t want to tell you because I didn’t want you to hear. Somehow I thought you’d hear in your sleep. But there’s no reason not to tell you now. I . . I went back to crime. I wasn’t doing so well on my own. I had to sell a lot of our stuff. Like my ring. I regret it. I lost so many precious memories of you through that.

“I’m sorry to say that I’ve been doing better. I have a pretty stable job where I actually help the police . . or pretend to,” she includes with a weak laugh. “And my moirail keeps me in line. I wish you could have met her. You two would have gotten along. But don’t worry, she’s promised to keep me afloat when you’re gone.”

She takes a deep breath, “I’m sorry if this feels like I’m giving up on you. But we’re fighting a battle that we’re not winning. And I’ve started to realize, that I can’t win them all. I just wish you weren’t a battle that I’d lose.” Vriska bends over to kiss him lightly on the lips, “I love you John,” she whispers inches from his face. “I love you.” She backs away and stands next to Jade. 

Jade can only wish her friend wouldn’t fight so hard to keep the tears away. “Mr. Egbert?” she calls for outside the room. He looks inside. “It’s time.”

And as a doctor cuts off John’s air supply, those around him watch as he is left to breathe on his own.

The next morning, Jade walks in with two cups of coffee in her hand. She hands one to a very tired and exhausted Vriska. “Where’s Mr. Egbert?”

“He went back to his motel. Probably wants to extend his stay. I also think the tension was killing him.”

Jade rubs her friend’s back, “How are you holding up?”

“I hate him.”

“Who? Mr. Egbert? The doctor? You know they want John to go on his own.”

“No.”

Jade starts to look uncomfortably around the room, “Then who?”

“John.”

“John?”

Vriska growls, “I hate John.”

“Vriska-“

“I hate John!” she screams.

A nurse checks in on the scream and Jade shoos her away. “You don’t mean that Vriska!”

Vriska buries her face into John’s bed, “I was ready! I was finally ready to let go! And now! And now he pulls this bullshit!” She extends a hand to his heart rate monitor, which is still beeping. “He lives! He’s fucking living. He decided that he can breathe on his own!”

Jade kneels down beside her, “Vriska this is a good thing!”

“No it’s not!” she shrieks back. “He’s trying to give me hope! I don’t want his fucking hope! I want him to leave so I can move on! That’s what I’m supposed to do! I’m done with wishing he’ll come back! He’s fucking toying with us!” Vriska stands up and moves closer to John’s face, “You like that huh? You trickster! You like playing dead? Do you like playing with our emotions!?” Cerulean tears splash down on him. “Is this some-some kind of game to you?” Vriska breaks back down and gets encased in Jade’s arm. “Why is this  
happening?”

The woman rocks the troll back and forth like she would with her dog, “I don’t know.” Jade sighs, “It was stupid for me to think I could leave.”

“No. You’re not canceling for me.”

“Vriska, you’re a mess!”

“And it won’t help if I’m keeping you away from your trip!”

“That doesn’t matter now!”

The troll looks at her with a face mixed with sweat, tears and hair. “Lies! I knew the consequences when I created that plan! Besides, I feel like I should be alone now.”

“In your condition I don’t think-“

“I don’t care! I want to be alone!” Jade backs away. “Listen to me Jade, I want you to get this out of your mind. I want you to fuck that asshole. Fuck his brains out. And if you come back and you didn’t at the very least try, then I will never forgive you.”

“Vriska . .”

“We’re not losers, Jade! We’re fighters! We deal with shit and move on! And if I can get any happiness in the coming days or even weeks, then it will come from knowing you’re happy.” The two stare at each other in silence. “Now aren’t you supposed to be leaving soon?”

Jade stares at the person she loves the most with all of her heart. She gives a brief, strong hug and departs to meet with another troll she cares deeply about.


	2. TWO

Karkat meets his partner against crime in front of a car that barely passes safe-for-road regulations. “So this is Vriska’s car?” he asks. 

“Yup,” Jade confirms, “she’s not planning on going anywhere so she lent it to us. Don’t worry, it will get us there. It doesn’t look like much, but it . .” Jade quickly wipes away something falling from her eye.

Karkat notices, “Is everything okay?”

She nods her head and takes a deep breath, ‘Yeah. Come on, we need to get there before it gets too late. The chief is expecting us!” 

The officers have their luggage stuffed into the car and pull out onto the highway. 

Jade has the first shift, “I figured an hour’s drive each would be good? We both can’t get to tired.”

“For a four hour drive that’s good,” Karkat agrees. “In the meantime we should prepare.”

“Nervous?” Jade quips. “Good. We should be. I most certainly am.”

Karkat takes a deep breath, “Yes, I’m fucking nervous. I need to grovel to an overpowered politician to help us.”

“Hey work on your wording! WE need to CONVINCE a CHARIABLE politician to help us.” 

The troll looks over at her impressed, “That’s good.”

Jade sighs, “Karkat, I know you’ll do fine. You’re just nervous. But don’t worry, together we’ll get each other through this.”

He smiles, “I know you get pretty energetic when it comes to work, but I’m pretty surprised that you’re not barfing over your own nerves.”

“Oh I am. This was just my idea so there’s no way I can back out now. Ha ha. Besides I’ve learned to hide my feelings. You don’t know how many times I’ve wanted to bark at the people who yell at us.” she shares cheerily.

Karkat looks over confused, “You seriously learned all your social behaviors from a dog?”

“Hey! Bec was a great friend! Best friend! But yeah, sniffing someone’s butt didn’t go well in the Capital. But you learn fast when people threaten institutionalization.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re here Jade.”

“Yeah, me too.” She keeps her eyes on the road, “Let’s discuss who we’ll meet. Know your enemy-er sponsor I mean.”

“Sure. We got some time to kill on this road. Tell me, is the chief the same guy? I think he had like a scar that he always used to scare the rookie officers. What’s his name again?”

“Chief Terres? Yup! He’s still pushing everyone to move right along with him.”

“Great,” Karkat groans, “I wasn’t his favorite.” 

“I’m sure you’ll be fine,” Jade reassures. “It’s the mayor I’m more worried about. Have you ever seen him?”

“I was always too busy to. I’m sure when the time comes we can find him surrounded by his bodyguards and his esteem,” he says the word ‘esteem’ with vile. 

“Karkat, you need to let that go. He’s a decent enough mayor and he has the ultimate say on our proposal.”

“Don’t worry Jade, I’m getting it all out now.” He opens up a folder from his bag with notes, “Come on, let’s return to our talking points for tonight. Last thing I need is for me to start shitting my pants like a fucking baby.”

In the long hours that follow, the two officers arrive at their hotel room. Karkat drops off his share of the luggage and moves to open the curtains. 

He looks outside and sighs, “This is a view.” 

Jade lifts her suitcase onto her bed, “Yeah. I’m taking this bed okay?”

“Huh? Yeah that’s fine.”

The woman laughs, “It’s not like on the cruise, is it? You don’t have to sleep on the couch or anything. ” 

“Well that WAS vacation.”

“We’ll see if we can fit some free time in here. I’m sure we can have some fun together.”

Karkat looks at her suspicious, “. . Sure.”

“So how about we take a quick break, maybe a nap, and then we get ready in an hour?”

“Fine by me,” Karkat collapses on the bed ready to pass out. “Never get enough sleep anyways.” 

And not long . . .

Karkat adjust his tie, making sure it fits and isn’t sloppy. He’s sure it won’t look right. “Jade?” he calls to the bathroom, “You almost done?”

She opens the door, “Almost,” and steps out. Jade wears an appropriate, blue cocktail dress that Karkat can help but see the beauty in her. She moves slowly towards him, “I need your help with something.”

Jade turns around to reveal that her dress is unzipped, thus revealing her bare back. “Oh uh sure,” Karkat manages to get out. He zips up the dress, he thinks she didn’t even try to zip up at all, and spins her around to face him. “You look great.” She smiles back at him.

“Thank you.” Jade works on tightening his tie, “There you go. Now you look perfect.” The woman grabs her bag and extends an arm to Karkat, “Shall we?”

He grabs her coat, “Don’t you think you’ll be cold?” 

Jade takes it and puts the coat on, “The cold doesn’t bother me. It’s all just part of my rich biology!”

“Well I’m sorry to say I’d rather avoid your ‘rich biology’ with the mayor. Might freak him the fuck out if he thinks we have super soldiers or something.”

“I understand,” she responds. “But I do like talking to you about it . . and Vriska! You both make me feel so . . normal. I don’t know what I would do without you.” 

Smiling, Karkat reaches out to gingerly touch her face but instead settles for her arm, “This is going to be a good night.”

“Oh I’m sure it will be.” Jade presses her hand on top of his, “We should get going.” She then casually loops her arm around Karkat’s and starts to lead him to the door. 

The two officers stand side by side outside of a fancy, rich person restaurant for the elegant and super fancy mancy fancy. It should be mentioned that it is fancy. 

Karkat stares at the place nervous, “How are we going to pay for this?”

“Don’t worry!” Jade squeezes his arm reassuringly. “The mayor offered to handle it. He says that we are guests in his city!”

“Okay, but I thought we were supposed to meet with Chief Terres tonight?”

Jade waves Karkat’s concerns off, “You’re worrying too much! I told you that everything is taken care of.” A high pitch ringing goes off from inside of Jade’s purse. She reaches inside to pull out her phone. “One second, Karkat! Hello?”

“Good evening, Jade.”

“Jake! It’s good to hear from you! What’s up?”

“Oh I’m just making this rubbish phone call that you ask me to do. Also I do believe Jane is trying to experiment some blasted baking concoction. ”

“Oh no that’s terrible!”

“Quite. We both know she’s wonderful, but when she strays too far from the recipe then my pistol will be cocked and ready to fire at the blasted monstrosity. . . Don’t take that the wrong way.”

“So what’s going to happen now?”

“That’s for only you to know apparently. And your friend. I wished you explained to us what you were doing tonight. Ah well. Have fun with your little charade! I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

“Yes, goodbye.” Jade hangs up the phone. “Oh Karkat, I’m so sorry!”

Karkat looks concerned, “What’s wrong?”

“That was Jake and he told me that Chief Terres is too busy tonight to meet us. He must be caught up in paperwork or something. But we’ll instead meet him tomorrow with the mayor.”

The troll sort of kicks the ground, “Fucking bullshit. And after we had to get . . dressed up.”

“Listen,” Jade calmly says, “We’re meeting him tomorrow. And we shouldn’t bring this up later. He’ll think we’re petty and we don’t need that. Tomorrow we’ll focus then, but how about tonight we have a little fun for ourselves. I mentioned free time possibilities! And we are in the one of the biggest cities in the world. There’s quite a bit that we could do. Let’s enjoy ourselves before we have to get serious again. Besides, we do look great.”

Karkat sighs and lets the disappointment go. He looks at Jade with slightly forced enthusiasm, “So what do you want to do?”

“Ever been to the park?”

“Everyone that’s ever been here for at least an hour has.”

“Do you remember that they like to do special events?”

“How do you know one is tonight?”

“Oh,” Jade sort of walks around Karkat, “I looked them up when I was thinking of bring Vriska here.”

“Okay, so what is tonight?” Jade smiles brightly at him. 

Jade and Karkat stand side by side just outside of the Capital’s Park that holds a brightly lit carnival. The woman tugs on the troll’s sleeve, “Come on!” And they both move towards the bright lights. 

Karkat looks around at the other people, “Dear Grub, we are overdressed.”

Jade looks over at him and laughs, “I know, right? At least we are doing it together!” Karkat smiles back feeling at ease. “So, you hungry?”

“Sure, but I don’t know if I want to eat something filled with rodent shit.”

She rolls her eyes, “Don’t worry, Karkat.” Jade then begins to speak in a most snooty tone of voice, “In the Capital, everything is pristine! Why you could eat your own feces and it would taste simply delightful!”

Karkat is now laughing, “Holy fucking shit. I completely forgot about all that lusus shit propaganda. They’re still running that?”

“Of course! Capital is ‘the best’ place to live!”

“Huh,” Karkat looks the place over. “It is an improvement from Skaia though.”

“Maybe, but they don’t have everything.” Jade stares into Karkat’s eyes and smiles. “Anyways you’re hungry.” She quickly gets the two of them food. “I’ll admit that it isn’t that great, but it’s not that bad either!”

Karkat eats his share and is impressed and then disappointed. “It’s actually better than what Gamzee has given me.”

Jade leans on her hand interested, “How is Gamzee doing? I’m actually curious on how he even keeps that restaurant afloat. It’s always empty when I visit.” 

“Fuck if I know. I’ve asked him to show me his records but he refuses. For all I know he’s sucking some guy’s dick to keep the place running.”

“Why does he work there? He never seems invested in the place.”

Karkat sighs, “When I first moved here, Gamzee and I worked together there. There are a lot of memories in that shit hole, and Gamzee has trouble moving on.” He starts to look unsettled. 

“Ooo!” Jade looks past Karkat, “There’s a small band that’s starting to play!” She stands up, “Come on Karkat! We have to dance!”

“What?” He doesn’t even remember the last time he danced. In most cases, Karkat would have refused, but not tonight. “Alright then.”

The two go over to the small dancing section and hold each other close. Jade moves in closer. “This is nice,” she whispers to him. 

“Y-Yeah.” Karkat will admit that it’s nice not being stared at. The Capital does have this right. He even sees other mixed species couples dancing. It’s almost bizarre to him. But Karkat returns his attention to Jade. Grub, she looks beautiful. He wishes that she’d just rest her head on his shoulder, but that’d be too much. Instead they both sway back and forth holding hands and just feeling each other.

Jade starts to grow nervous, “Karkat?” He looks at her. “I was wondering . . if you wanted to ride the Ferris wheel?”

“Oh? Sure,” Karkat drops his arms away from her. 

Jade could just hit herself for that. Perfect opportunity just gone. She knows that Vriska would be screaming at her now. 

But wait. Jade looks back at the Ferris wheel. The top of the ride. Just them sitting together. No distractions. And it’s totally cheesy enough for Karkat to love it! This is it! That is the moment she needs! That they need!

Jade almost pulls Karkat over to get them in line quicker. It’s only when they almost reach the front of the line where Karkat reads a sign. “Oh we apparently need to buy tickets for this.” Jade looks behind them to see that the line is longer than when they started. And the ticket stand is worse. There’s no way that she can get tickets by the time they reach the front.

“Don’t worry, I got this!” she tells Karkat determinedly.

Reaching the front of the line, the carnie holds his hand out, “Tickets.” Jade puts a five dollar bill in his hand. “Alrighty then,” and he lets them in a pod.

As they start to ascend, Karkat looks at Jade quizzically, “I don’t think the tickets would have cost that much.”

“It’s fine,” Jade reassures. She starts to rest on Karkat’s shoulder, and Karkat starts to take deep breaths to calm himself. 

They are close to reaching the top.

“Karkat?” Jade says softly. 

“Yeah?”

“I’m really enjoying being right here next to you.”

Karkat swallows, “Me too!”

“I-I want you to know that you are important to me. I care about you a lot.”

“Me too!”

Jade almost laughs, is that all he can say? “In fact, I need to tell you something.” 

“Me too-Oh?”

Jade looks to the window to take a deep breath. She turns back around, “I think you’re . . Bec?”

“Bec? What the fuck does that mean?”

But Jade is already turned back to the window, “Bec!?” She starts to pound on the window.

“Whoa calm down, Jade!” He tries to pull her back. “What are the chances that Bec is here? Come on that might be someone else’s fucking dog!”

Jade continues to scream, “BEC!” 

The carnies notice Jade and think she’s going to vomit on the ride. They quickly move to get her and Karkat to the bottom. 

Jade rushes out to embrace the white dog, “Bec! What are you doing here?”

Karkat is flabbergasted, “How the fuck did your dog get here?”

Jade almost looks embarrassed, “I-I’ve never actually been able to measure his speed or endurance.”

“Your grandpa made a fucking super dog,” Karkat whispers to himself in disbelief. 

“I don’t understand!” Jade says. “You’re supposed to be with Vriska! Huh?” Jade then notices a piece of paper wrapped tightly in the back of Bec’s collar. 

She stands up with the paper and unrolls it, “Oh my God.” Karkat stands behind her to read the paper. 

It reads: SKAIA IN FLAMES. SEND HELP. -V


	3. THREE

In a mansion that rests in the better side of Skaia, two trolls rest together in a bed. One of them, Feferi, rubs her matesprit’s face staring directly into his eyes.  
“I love you,” she says. 

Sollux laughs and then stops. “You are amazing you know that? So silly.”

Feferi runs her thumbs right below his red eye, “I can’t say I feel surprised. And your excuse for those glasses is . . . understandable. I’m just glad that you could share it with me.”

Her matesprit turns to lie on his back, “It feels like forever since . . I feel so . . happy. I don’t have any secrets from you, and I love you.” Sollux looks over to her, “I never imagined that I wouldn’t end up with an asshole, but here you are.” 

Feferi kisses him on the forehead, “And I never imagined I’d be with someone who’s such an angelfish.”

“I don’t want anything to change.” He says sinking deeper into the softest pillows in the world.

“Yeah, I wish we could stay this way. Just us swimming along together.” She puts her head on his chest. “Sadly, we have responsibilities to our city.” 

Sollux scoffs, “Skaia can burn for all I care right now.”

Feferi giggles and lifts her head to look out the window, “But it’s such a pretty city-“ She stops and has a look of pure horror on her face.

“FF? What’s wrong?”

“Skaia . . It’s on fire.”

Sollux sits up, “I-I don’t think I can do that. Not from here at least . . .” Feferi gets out of the bed and tries to turn on the TV.

She continuously clicks and clicks the remote, “The TV, it’s not turning on!” The mayor wraps a bed sheet around her body and opens the bedroom door, she notices that the lights are completely out. 

“Mazath!” Feferi cries out to her maid. “Mazath! Anyone!?” Immediately, Mazath and more of the house staff reports in front of Feferi. 

“Miss?” Mazath asks ready. 

“I need my phone.” One of the staff runs to retrieve it. “Why are all the lights out?”

“I’m sorry Miss, our generator and even our spare generator are broken. We’ve been trying to repair them for hours.”

“Hours?”

“Yes, we would have informed you, but you insisted on privacy this evening.” 

Sollux walks up behind Feferi already putting on his clothes. He pulls out his phone, “My phone is dead?”

The servant comes back with one of Feferi’s phones, “I’m sorry Miss, but all of your phones, cellular and landline, are broken. See for yourself.”

Feferi tries to turn on the phone to only keep the black screen. She starts to panic but stops herself. Instead she walks back into her room while everybody follows her. 

She talks while dressing herself, “My city needs my help. I am going to go downtown and do the best I can to bring people to safety. Mazath, I’m putting you in charge of the house. I want you to prepare rooms with blankets, food and water for the refuges that I will be sending here.”

“Yes Miss.”

Sollux grabs her arm, “Wait FF, you can’t intend to go down there?”

“I have to Sollux.”

“It’s dangerous down there!”

“Well it’s probably been dangerous for hours! And I’ve been ignorant to it while my citizens suffer. You can’t expect me to continue to sit idly by while-“

“Yes I can.” Sollux stares deep into her eyes. “I can go down there in your place, I’ll tell the officers to try to send people here. I have no idea what is down there, but we can’t lose you. Skaia can’t lose you.”

“But what about you?!”

“FF, Skaia is the one suffering just as you said. They’ll need their mayor after all of this. You’re not dispensable. I am. 

“Don’t you dare say that!”

“I’m sorry but happy times are gone now. It’s time to get serious.” He turns to Mazath, “I need a car.” 

“Sorry Sir, but all cars are nonfunctional.”

“Then I’ll take a bike.” Sollux presses his lips against Feferi’s. “I’m not going to die FF, I refuse to. And you know how stubborn I am.”

Without another word, Sollux leaves the area on the fastest bike he could snag. And while Feferi watches him leave, she whispered, “You better.” 

Hours earlier . . .

The Chief of the Skaian Police Force walks alongside his moirail in the middle of Skaia. The sun is almost gone and the city is close to waking up. While the two have idle chatter, other things are on their mind. 

“So this Nitram, is he treating you well?” Equius intrigues. 

Nepeta sighs almost dreamily, “As always, yes. I wish you weren’t so cold to every person I date. I really like Tavros! He’s purrfect!”

The stone-faced troll lets out a brief and small smile. “I only don’t want you to be hurt again. But I will allow myself to say that you have become more like your old self since your relationship with him started.”

“Yeah . . . I miss the old you too,” she looks up at him expectantly. 

“Nepeta,” he warns.

“You don’t see her everyday like I do!”

“I told you to leave her alone. Just as she has asked of you to do.”

Nepeta stands in front of him, “How can you be so calm!?”

“You will refrain yourself from causing a commotion, Nepeta.” 

“You two love each other. This isn’t something that faded away. And two people that really love each other can make it work!” She pouts, “You’re just not trying hard enough!”

Equius grits his teeth so hard she can hear them breaking, “I can’t.”

“Why not?” There is no sympathy in her eyes but only a fierce fire.

“I just can’t.”

“Then try!”

“Because I’m weak!” He starts to shake. “I’m too weak to be with her.”

“Equius?” Nepeta pulls him into an alleyway to stray from wary eyes. “How can you say that you’re weak? You’re the strongest person I know!”

“Aradia. She was willing to put up against anyone who opposed us. I was the weak one. I was too scared. I was scared of losing my reputation, my allies, and even my life. She is strong. She is brave. She is everything I cannot be. I am not worthy to be with her.”

Equius tries to have his head hang down in shame, but Nepeta forces him to look her in the eyes. “You are wrong! You are strong enough! You just need to put your heart into it! You love her, there’s no denying that. And she has some feelings for you or she wouldn’t have bothered visiting you earlier. You both are making yourselves sick! Don’t you know that the heart is important? You can’t live without it. 

“Nepeta . . .”

She lets go of him, “You just need to take a chance. You need to rely on yourself.”

“It’s been a long time, what if she says no? What if there’s someone else for her?”

Nepeta starts to leave the alley, “Trust me, there isn’t.”

Nepeta barely has a step out into the fading sunlight before an explosion happens close by. Faster than any eye could catch, Equius races towards her and protects her with his own body. “Are you okay?” She is shaken but no physical harm was done. 

“Equius, what happened?”

“I don’t know.” He reaches into his coat pocket, “Stay by my side, I’m going to call for backup.” Equius has his phone in his hand but the screen is black. “My phone isn’t working. Lend me yours.”

Nepeta reaches for her own phone, but similar damage is done to it. She looks around, “Equius, all the buildings are dark.” He looks around, indeed inside all of the buildings there is no electrical light. Even the electric signs are off. 

And then he sees others around him. Panic. Panic everywhere. People are rushing around. Some are having panic attacks. Others move to see the explosion. Some are trying to revive their phones. And a few are in cars that won’t start.

Nepeta is still stunned, “Equius?”

He looks towards the direction of where she lives, it is opposite of the explosion. “Nepeta, I need you to go straight home. Lock your doors. Don’t let anyone in except for me. Please do as I say and be safe.”

She nods her head obediently, “I will-Tavros! He could be in danger! He can’t run away! I have to-“

“Nepeta no! You will do as I say. Run home. Lock doors. Stay alive.” With high concentration, he hugs her gently, “Please. I need you to stay safe.” He releases her.

“What’s happening?”

“Someone is attacking Skaia.”

Closer to the explosion, a troll is being led away from the possible danger by a human. 

“Sorry Kanaya,” Dave says as he runs with quick speed, “I didn’t expect hanging out with you to end up like this. But most things involving Rose end up chaotic. We’ll finish our talk later.”

Kanaya pants and can already sense her hair getting messy and her shoes getting scruffy. “Where are we going?”

“Somewhere I can keep you safe. I know Rose, and she would be pissed if you died. She can take of herself though. You on the other hand-“

“I think I could surprise you Dave!” she huffs. Never insult a troll’s strength. 

“Well then I’ll protect everyone else from you. Either way, I have spent my time in Skaia scoping out great hiding spots when the shit hits the fan. My Bro taught me well. We’ll be safe while this all blows over. Too bad I don’t have a sword.”

“What is going on here?” 

Dave immediately stops her and has them press close against the side of a building, “Shush!”

A large group, that could be an easy guess for who is responsible for this catastrophe, arrives. A mixture of different groups is contained. One set seems to have everyone wear black, and another wearing all white. Neither of them seems willing to get too close to each other, or happy to be ‘working’ together. The third group on the other hand, is having the time of their life. They are cheering and throwing bricks and molotovs into the windows. The third group is dressed in an assortment of clothes that Kanaya would be insulted to see on the streets, but they are torn up and smeared all over. There is no convergence except for the fact that they are essence of chaos. They are the children in recess that push the littler kids into the dirt. 

Dave and Kanaya manage to stay hidden from this mush of trouble as it walks by. 

Kanaya dares to ask the question, “Who are they?”

Dave gets ready to move again, “They are the problem.”

And in a large, cozy mansion far away from this, a troll sits at his desk with a glass of whisky in his hand. He watches as little fires start to pop up all over Skaia, he can almost hear the screams. If he just imagines hard enough . . .

Eridan takes a sip of his drink, Scratch’s plan was pulled off perfectly of course. EMPs. Either a big one or small ones. Whatever it takes to silence Skaia’s communications. And it’s not like he is unaffected, his own home is dark. A shame. He can’t even listen to his music. But the results are worth it. Now Skaia has no way to communicate to the outside world, and no way to have help arrive in time. And the minions of The Felt, The Midnight Crew, and The Change are able to keep the problems rolling in. 

And to sweeten the situation, people are stationed around the border of Skaia to keep anyone from escaping or entering. It reminds Eridan of his youthful days of torturing his ‘pet’ ants. Block all exits while you flood the colony.

All Eridan has to do is watch. Later Feferi will be ashamed by how she let the city fall and she’ll run back into his arms. She’s probably cowering in her own mansion right now! Truth be told, Eridan doesn’t know of any alternative plans Scratch has in mind. But as long as Eridan gets what he wants, why should he care?

He watches as the civilians continue to panic and run to what they hope to be safety, if they can find it. And down below, one troll is trying her best to usher as many people as she can into the police department’s basement.

As requested by an officer, Vriska is busy finding anyone near the building and bringing them to safety. Damn, she wished she knew what was going on. This sort of chaos both excites and scares her. Fortunately she had the quick intuition to send Bec running to Jade with a note. She can only hope that Jade and Karkat can send help. The dog was trying to run for her before Vriska let him go. And Jade always seemed confident that Bec could find her. What a strange creature. 

But it is more likely that Bec would be safer finding Jade then staying in Skaia. Before the first explosion, Vriska was organizing paperwork to get her mind off things while waiting for someone to yell at her about bringing a dog in. But no one did. In fact it was strangely quiet in the building. It wasn’t until all the power went out when Vriska investigated outside and sent forth her message. 

Most of the remaining officers left Vriska to care for any survivors, but she doesn’t even know what to do with them. All she knows is to send them into the basement hoping that they don’t go crazy. She has sensed a few close calls but used her ‘unique abilities’ to calm them down. 

Yet even through all of this, Vriska’s mind was still distracted by a large building across the city. She couldn’t get her mind off John who could be dying any moment. Mr. Crocker stayed with his son and promised to call Vriska at any new developments, but what’s going on now? No phones will work, and she doesn’t have any speedy transportation to get her through the mess. That’s even with the ability to leave her position. 

“John should be alright,” she assures herself aloud. There’s no fear in anyone catching her talking to herself, she’s caught many people today doing the same thing. “They take care of those in the hospitals first, right? He’ll be out in no time. But where will they send him? Will I be able to find him afterwards? And there’s nothing to help keep him alive, but I AM waiting for him to die. Mr. Crocker will take care of him. Won’t he?” Vriska stopped in her tracks while in the middle of escorting people. It’s too much. “I can’t do this. I can’t be here!”

Vriska felt her knees give out and she was crouching on the floor with her hands covering her face. She started panting loudly and cerulean tears covered her face. “I can’t save John, I can’t save these people!” Now the people following her start to really freak out. But Vriska does nothing but scream. She screams so loud hoping that all the problems will go away. But she knows they won’t, and yet she can’t stop herself. 

Someone pulls Vriska up and slaps her across the face. She suddenly wakes up still shaken. Terezi holds her up with a frown across her face. “Get a hold of yourself.” She looks to the people behind, “There’s a door that will lead to the basement where the other survivors are. It’s across this room to the left side. Don’t miss it.” Everyone quickly leaves only to leave Terezi roughly holding Vriska. 

“W-Whaaaaaaaa-?”

Terezi lets go, and Vriska falls onto the floor. “Pathetic. I can’t believe you could ever defeat me. I don’t know how, but it is in you somewhere . . .”

Vriska’s eyes go wide, “You know? After all this time?”

“Yeah, I wasn’t sure at first, but my nose can’t forget your stinky blood. I swear you smell like spoiled blueberries.” Vriska notices that this isn’t Terezi’s usual banter. 

She stands up, “So why didn’t you rat me out?”

“Who could say it would do any good? You had the Chief wrapped around your finger. I had no guaranteed that I would win. But I always kept a close nose on you. I just waited for you to have a toe step out of line. But it looks like Jade trained you better than I thought. Tell me Blueberry, do you know how much acid hurts when it’s thrown directly into your eyes?”

Vriska couldn’t help but sneer, “I bet a fuck ton.”

“Oh you are right!” Terezi laughs. “I even thought your relationship with that John fellow was fake, but no. I smell the despair that’s coated you more and more.” Vriska wasn’t in the mood for laughter.

“What the fuck do you want from me?”

“Haha! Skipping right to it? Well truth be told I prefer smelling to seeing, so that is a favor. It makes me feel connected to my lusus spiritually. But I didn’t appreciate your method or your previous life of crime. So I’ve decided to leave you with a warning. Do one thing wrong, ONE THING, and I will serve vengeance. Justice will be served. And if you even think about hurting that sweet girl-“

Vriska snarls, “Don’t you even imagine that I would!”

That seems to satisfy her, “Good.” Terezi sticks her nose in the air. “I hate all of this smoke. I can’t tell what’s going on. I almost ran right into the hospital.” 

Vriska quickly connects what this means and dashes out of the department. Terezi stays behind with a slight smile across her face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reason on why this took so long? 
> 
>  
> 
> BULLSHIT. IT HAPPENS.


	4. FOUR

Your name is Karkat Vantas and you must keep Jade Harley from freaking out too much in front of this crowd. She is still clutching the note in her hands. She is shaking.

“Jade,” you begin calmly. “We need to take a deep breath. We don’t know what’s going on. Notes can be misleading-“

She turns around and glares at you, “This is in her handwriting. I know Vriska’s handwriting!”

“Okay okay! But how do we know for sure that Vriska sent it?”

She’s almost starting to tear the paper apart. “I leave Bec with Vriska, and I get Bec back with a note from V. What the fuck do you think?”

You hold your hands up defensively, “Let’s not get mad. I’m trying to see this from the Capital’s point of view. They are asking for help, right? Do you think they’ll believe an ambiguous note sent from Skaia by a dog?” You look at Bec who doesn’t even seem to be tired after his long trip. “They won’t believe it.”

“But it’s true!”

“Do you want it to be true?”

Jade grits her teeth, “Of course not! But-“

“Listen.” Jade looks at you angry that you’ve interrupted her and are still arguing with her. “I can get an easy answer from this without running to Capital officials. I’ll call Gamzee!”

You pick up the phone and soon his number is selected. But he doesn’t pick up. You don’t even get a ringing. “I’m sorry,” the phone replies in a monotone voice, “but the number you are reaching is no longer available. You may-“ You quickly turn it off before Jade starts to freak out again. 

“Okay Gamzee probably forgot his phone bill or he dropped the damn thing in the toilet again.” Is that how phones work? “My bad for relying on him to help calm this situation. I’ll try Sollux.” You start to search for his number. “And why don’t you try Vriska?”

Jade nods her head, but she looks like she’s on the verge of a panic attack. She sits on a nearby chair and table while Bec rests his head on her lap. 

You both get the same response as before. At this point you are starting to worry.

“A prank?” you suggest.

Jade disagrees, “Vriska would never do this to me.”

You sit in the chair that accompanies hers. “So what should we do? No one is going to believe this.” You look over at Jade to find her already busy with her phone.

“Jake? Hi. . No not that. I have something serious to discuss. . . Stop that. I need you to contact your superior or whoever and have them look into Skaia. . . Yes. For whatever reason I cannot call anyone there, and Bec has given me a note from a reliable source warning me that Skaia is on fire. . . . I do not know of much else. . . Yes that Bec.” She sighs. “I know it will be hard to convince . . . Well if YOU can have anyone answer a call then I’ll calm down. But if you can’t then send help. . . Me? I’m going back. . . .Yes bye.” She hangs up.

Jade stands up starts to move. Bec follows and you catch up. “You’re going back to Skaia?”

“Yes. I can’t rest easy wondering if Vriska or any of my other friends are hurt. You?”

You sigh but continue to follow, “I can’t disagree. So what about our stuff back at the hotel?” 

“Leave it.” She stares straight ahead with determination. People move out of the way.

“You’re hardly dressed for action.”

“I’ll improvise this one. It isn’t a favorite of mine anyway.”

“It will take us a while to get there.”

“Good thing I brought our emergency siren.”

You continue to follow her hoping that this isn’t a prank because this ‘date’ is definitely over. 

Your name is Equius Zahhak and you are doing the best you can as the Chief of Skaian Police. And though you do try to push all doubt away from your mind, it cannot help but linger that you are unable to overcome this disaster.

All around you buildings burn and citizens flee with fear. You do not know the cause of this distress, but you have sent trusted officers of the law to find out the source. You on the other hand, are busy directing people to safety. You wish you could apprehend those who have thrust such misfortunate to Skaia, but due to your immense strength, you must remain behind. You are one of the rare few who can remove rubble and let trapped citizens flee from burning buildings. The only department busier than the police is the fire department. 

It is clear that it’s impossible to save everyone, and even more unlikely that the town will be able to solve this problem on its own. But there is no way to send for help.

All you can do is try.

You are running through a burning building making sure everyone is evacuating. The smoke does not bother you because you have strong determination. Much stronger than the smoke that’s for sure.

You are finishing escorting a human family unit out of the building. They continue to run in the direction you informed them would lead to safety. 

You look around the area for the next place that needs you. But it is of no use. This day has more action then all your days with the police combined. And it sickens you. It sickens you that some sick pervert could find enough enjoyment out of this to torture so many to the point of death. You only hope that Nepeta has made it home safely. 

As you search this part of the city, you notice that it is almost empty. You go away from the fleeing citizens to the deeper part of the city where the flames are more intense. 

You find that most of the people here are running in the right direction, except for a couple that is standing in one spot. 

But they don’t look like an actual ‘couple.’ No, and one of them seems quite intent on leaving the vicinity. 

You are able to get close enough to understand what is going on, but not close enough to interfere. 

The reporter, Ms. Megido, is arguing with her cameraman. Apparently she’s determined to capture some footage of this mess, a treasure for the news, but the cameraman will not and cannot do it. You don’t think that Ms. Megido realizes that all electronics are destroyed. There is no way for her to report this. 

And it gets to the point where the cameraman abandons the ruined equipment and leaves Ms. Megido alone.

But she doesn’t give up. 

Instead she tries to fix the camera on her own. You don’t know her skills in mechanics, but there is nothing to be done. 

You aren’t completely sure as to why she doesn’t leave and save herself . . . unless. Unless she truly believes that she can keep herself alive with her powers. Yes. That must be it.

And yet. You cannot believe that. You’ve tested the extent of her powers. Aradia can only do so much. And unless the voices tell her, she will not know of her surroundings. 

So when she’s is so focused on that broken camera, she cannot see the danger that is coming towards her. 

Aradia cannot see how the building is coming to fall on her.

You move before she can even sense the danger. You leap through the air and smash the building into pieces with your might strength. Harmless rumble falls around you and her. And the scared look on her face confirms and denies a couple of your fears.

Your first fear was that she wasn't relying on the voices. It was always possible, especially with Nepeta pestering her and the arrival of a new friend or even moirail or more? And so the voices decided to be done with her and lead her to her doom. That is what you suppose had happened. 

The other fear however, is that Aradia was far too involved with the voices to want to live. That she’s finished living with the living, as Nepeta feared and even warned you. And that Aradia was simply waiting for death.

You are happy that it wasn’t the latter.

Instead Aradia seems shocked. You believe that whatever faith she held in the voices is gone. She soon looks up at you, who stands a several feet away, and says nothing. And you respond the same.

Neither of you know how to react, but even staring at each other leaves a statement. There are people still running around you, and they will catch this moment you’re sharing with her. And while it does not matter now, there’s always the future. You always fear future consequences. 

And yet you couldn’t care less about the future if she wasn’t in it. And in a way, there might be some psychic abilities involved, you know she feels the same. 

You take a quick breath and walk over to her. “Aradia.” She looks at you intently. 

You wish you had the time to tell her everything. About how you regret abandoning her. How you should have helped her. How you should have always treated her. How you should have never been afraid of how others perceived you two together. 

One thing will always be true: while Aradia is stronger than you, you still have STRENGTH. 

“I need you to use your powers to help save the people.”

There is uncertainty in her eyes, “But . . .”

“I promise you, I will do everything in my power to keep you from being convicted if you are in fact found out. You can be subtle, but if anyone even suspects, I’ll stand by you. If I had it my way, there would be a ceremony in honor of what you could accomplish. Will you help me? Help Skaia?”

You see her smile and nod. Unfortunately, there is no time for tears or any more feelings then what you’ve already spared. Yet you can’t help but spare a quick second.

You bring her mouth to yours and feel the familiar warmth. You pull away and return to moving people around. You can see Aradia begin to focus on a caved in building.

You are so relieved to realize that you have strength in more than one way.

Your name is Jade Harley and you are an officer of the law. While you had planned to have other things on your mind tonight, they are all replaced by one thing. Vriska.

You are having horrible thoughts on what could happen to your moirail. You know that she is perfectly capable of taking care of herself, but to send a note? You can only imagine the worst. And it doesn't help if you can't call anyone in the city. 

You know that there are more rational actions that could have happened, but you're too anxious to deal with rationality. 

You try not to let Karkat see your hands shake as you grip the steering wheel. Your car is racing down the highway as other cars move aside for you. The siren is blocking out any other noise and the lights are coloring your impaired vision. You refused to have Karkat drive because you don't know if he believes the distress yet.

But you've made it this far without an accident, and you're almost there. 

It's late in the night when you take the exit. You'll only have a few short miles before you reach the outskirts of the city. You are resenting Skaia's isolated location.

But it isn't long until you start to see the smoke. And not long after that when you can see the flames. Fortunately, you are able to stop before reaching the guarded border. 

It's too dark to see what group these patrols belong to, but they aren't nice. 

You turn off the lights and get off the road. “Whoa what?” Karkat says scared. You quickly explain the border patrol. “So how do you want to get past them?”

You think for a second. “Bec will find us a way. He got out of here without a problem. And I'm sure that being away from the main road will help us.” Karkat takes a deep breath and stays quiet. There is nothing but pure determination between you two. 

And the fear of death for your moirails. 

Your name is Rose Lalonde, and you are driving away from Skaia which was left in the utmost normalcy that nothing could ever be wrong. But you are leaving that to take care of your own business. You are entering the dense forest where Scratch lives. You find this eerie since you only drove yourself here the first time you visited. All the other times you were escorted. 

But the first time you came here was by your professor’s request to spend more ‘personal study time’ with him. He was determined that you could surpass the rest of the class with his assistance. You probably should have known better than for him to pick favorites and to encourage it, but you were pretty stupid at the time. And you’re not ashamed to admit this because everyone realizes that they were stupid when they were younger. It’s nothing to be ashamed about. And you are sure that in future years you will realize how stupid you are to being doing this.

Now at the time you knew that your professor was growing a special attraction to you, and you enjoyed the subtle flirting. But more importantly, you wanted to use this  
opportunity to your advantage. Again, you were so stupid that you’re not even going to excuse yourself and call it something else. No, you were just stupid. 

You remember that first night perfectly. You were greeted in like an esteemed guest. You both had a rich dinner together. You remember how delicious the meal was. Then he took you to his parlor where he played the piano and insisted he’d buy a violin just so you could play with him next time. You didn’t realize that at that point you’d just agreed to visit again. You both sat down together and shared how he believed you could be the top student in every class you took. He even encouraged you to take more.

And then he took you. It was surprising. And sudden. He was forceful and you were quiet. You wanted to tell him to stop, but you couldn’t manage your voice to do so. In the end, you laid shivering on his bed alone. He was already adjusting his bowtie back on. Scratch walked over and petted your face like a child, and you certainly felt like one. And at that moment you knew that you would never be in control with him.

You should have backed out. Left the city even. But his words had power. They could convince you in a second that you are the most special being in the universe, and they could just as easily convince you that you are vermin. And through all of it, you did manage to be a top student at your university. You don’t blame it on your determination, or even if Scratch coerced the other professors. No, you think you were too afraid to risk failing him.

You have been living with this fear and anxiety for over a year, but that will change tonight.

You grit your teeth, “I can’t back down,” you tells yourself. “Not now and never again!” You have finally reached the isolated mansion, but to your surprise it feels emptier than usual. From what you can tell, there are no lights lit inside. Perhaps he has left for the night, but for what? He would have told you of any special events so that you would wait for him after. And even then, his servants would be continuously cleaning the house. Maybe you should just come back for another night . . .

No. “No,” you say out loud, “NO. NO!” You refuse to let your fears override this decision. This is the time to settle everything. Once and for all. 

“Why are you shouting?”

You jump in your seat and look in the back. You find Andrew Hussie lying in the back covering most of himself in an old blanket of yours. He has his mouth covered by his hands and a look of shock across his face. “I wasn’t supposed to talk.” You are aghast. 

“Wh-What are you doing in my car?”

“Dave wanted me to watch you.”

“For tonight?” Andrew looks off to the side. You bear your teeth, “How long have you been watching me?” You start to remember how you’d find him in the strangest places lately. But you always brushed it off on his peculiar nature.

“Dave was worried about you.”

You wanted to yell at him and then at Dave when you could, but you can’t. Dave knew something has been wrong lately. You can never hide much from him, and vice versa. But to send someone to follow you? Dave must know that there’s a reason to your restlessness. And now Andrew has followed you to a most dangerous place.

“Andrew, I need you to listen to me.” He doesn’t want to look up at you. “I promise that you are not in trouble and neither is Dave.” The full grown man turns to you. Strange, you could never understand why he treated you and Dave so specially, like you’ve always had a special impact on him. And when you’d see Andrew around other people, he would shut them out. The only other person he has behaved differently around is Jade. Yet you have always had a connection to this man and Dave is the same. There is a connection you have with him that no one can explain.

“I need you to stay in the car, Andrew. Where I’m going it won’t be safe. I can’t have you get hurt. I just . . I just can’t let that happen. So stay right where you are and I will be back.” Andrew nods his head in agreement, and you turn off the car.

In the passenger’s seat is your purse. You’ve memorized the contents around the most important object in there. You have your makeup with a tube of lipstick that was accidentally dented from dropping it. You reapply quickly. Tissues that are scrapped together to be used later. Some leftover yarn you were too lazy to throw away after knitting. And a pair of white gloves. All of this surrounds the gun that you plan to use tonight on Scratch. 

You grab the gloves to put on and after you grab your purse. You leave the car and are soon knocking on Scratch’s door. There is no answer.

You don’t wait to knock again. No servant of Scratch would leave a guest waiting. Instead, you open the door on your own and walk in. 

And your suspicions are proven correct, no one is inside. Not a maid or a measly kitchen hand. You hear some music faintly playing somewhere in the mansion. You proceed into the parlor.

Inside the parlor, you can see Scratch sitting with his back toward you, swaying his hands to the music coming from a phonograph. You recognize the music to be a strings orchestra. 

He doesn’t need to turn around to know you’re there. “Ah a pleasant surprise to see you here tonight, Rose. To what do I owe this?” The old man stands to turn around, and you clutch your purse tightly. He either does not notices or pretends not to notice your discomfort. “This is piece is a favorite of mine from-“

His words soon die out for you. Your vision starts to feel hazy, and your center of balance is off. You feel like you’re going to either throw up or collapse. So before that can happen, you pull out the gun and point it straight at Scratch.

He always manages to surprise you, he has no fear in his eyes. Instead he’s whimsical, “Oh? Are we going to play that little game? You’re not the first one to make this threat. Not that you’ll even manage to get close.”

You quickly remember your mistake and turn the safety off in a panic. 

He chuckles, “Well you’re making the right steps. Good for you, Rose!”

He talks to you like you’re a child, but you are NOT a child! “Enough!” He doesn’t stop smiling. “I’m fucking serious! Shut up!” Scratch stops smiling but looks annoyed.

“I don’t tutor you to use that sort of language here. This isn't who you are.”

“Well if it’s the only way I can fucking get you to pay attention, then screw you!”

Now he is beginning to get mad, “You are a rotten little child, aren’t you? I don't invest my time in this thing that stands before me. And you're so selfish in your own desires, that you’ll leave your own friends to die.”

“That won’t happen,” you say with staggering confidence.

“Oh? Do you not even know what’s going on in Skaia? How it’s burning to the ground and many are losing their lives without hope for a savior. In fact, you might be the only one to save them, but you’re too distracted with your own vendetta. Pitiful.” A cruel smile inches across his face.

“What are you talking about?”

“A little something I personally orchestrated with the local thugs. Their only instructs are to destroy the city as much as they can. Fortunately, they are doing quite well. I should throw a little party afterward to congratulate them. Oh but I don't think I'll have the time.”

You do your best to keep the gun from falling. “You’re going to kill thousands or even millions of people?”

“Does that honestly surprise you?”

You glare, “No. But why?”

He chuckles, “Well I’m not some cheap villain that simply explains their entire plan. But I will give you a few minor details. Because we are so ‘close.’” He makes bile grow in you. “My master loves chaos, and if I can find a plan to fit into his dreams, then so be it. All of this, everything that I strive to do, will lead to his succession.” He stares deeply into your eyes. “And all in the cost of some minor lives. Who do you think has already died? One of those officer friends of yours? Or that troll you have to keep your eyes from wandering to. Or . . That Dave fellow who has never been fond of me. You know, with all the knowledge I’ve gathered about you, I still don’t know your full relationship with him.” Scratch starts to walk closer to you. “How did you meet. What was your first impression.” He brushes your hair away from your face. “And is he the only other man to touch you like I have? Did you lie to me about that?” 

While you and Dave care deeply for each other, it has never been in that way. And only you suspect why you think even Dave is far too in denial. You’ve always noticed how he denies every flirtation or approach from anyone. From you, Terezi, or anyone. How he just lacks the desire . . .

You push Scratch away and raise your gun again. “Enough talk. This ends tonight!”

“Rose, I know you’re slow, but just how idiotic can you get? Even if you could, killing me won’t stop this. It won’t stop my movement. And it most certainly won’t stop my loyal crew to get revenge on your friends. If they manage to survive.”

For the first time tonight, you smile. “Maybe you’re the stupid one, Scratch. I’ve already figured that out!”

He begins to look bored, “Oh? I’ve already imagined every scenario and how to counter it. What could you possibly have?”

“The one you believed to be impossible. I started talking to my mom again.” And what must be a rare sight, Scratch is stunned. “I finally realized why you worked so hard to have me against her. How you convinced me to hate her! But she never gave up on me. She knew that you were trouble, and if she forced me to listen she knew I would only get closer to you. But when I went back to her on my own, she told me how she’s gathered evidence about you without you catching on. About you and the Felt. How you’ve embezzled, robbed, murdered, and so much more. She has enough to keep everyone locked away for life. And without you,” you point the gun straight to his heart, “they’ll have no way to get out.”

Scratch straightens his back and regains composure. “I could never predict that woman.

“She knows.”

“What a remarkable woman she is.”

“That's my mom.” 

“Indeed.”

And before you can react, Scratch tackles you and knocks the gun away so that it is out of your reach. His hands grasp around your neck and you begin to suffocate. You try to smack him away, but nothing works. You’re beginning to get dizzy. You turn to look at the mess made in the scrabble and find another gift of Scratch’s. 

You grab one of the lime green knitting needles and stab the hands around your throat. You use enough force that Scratch withdraws away from the pain and clutches his gloved and blood stained hand.

You move to your feet and grab the other needle. You’ll have to make do with what you got. But it must end now. You are capable. You have the ability. You have the reason!

Before you can make your move, Scratch falls to the ground when a broom smacks him in the head. The broom continuously hits his body until the old man stops moving. It’s only then when you see the attacker.

Andrew. He’s clutching a broom he grabbed somewhere in the mansion. He’s panting and has a look of fear. You walk over to the two and bend over Scratch’s body. 

He’s dead. There’s no breath coming out of his mouth. No beating of a heart. There’s no life in him at all.

You stand back up and watch Andrew with worry. He himself seems distraught by the act. His own hands are white from holding the broom too tightly.

“Andrew, you shouldn’t-you didn’t need to do that. I was going to kill him.”

He shakes his head ferociously, “I kn-know. But the burden doesn’t belong to you. It belonged to me. It always belonged to me. And he knew it.” Andrew is staring back down Scratch. 

There’s no use in talking to him now. What you should worry about is getting out. You look at the fireplace and throw Andrew’s broom into it. The needles soon follow. Next you retrieve the gun and leave the building as fast as you can. Completely unaware that Skaia isn’t as safe as you hoped. 

You are Officer Vantas and the city is in much worse conditions than what you expected.

As far from what you can tell, the city has been burning for hours and yet the flames are still fierce. You are following Jade as she follows Bec, but these streets are deserted. You can still hear screams and laughter around the city, but you have nothing to aid the city. 

The fact that Bec didn't stop running when you arrived safely at Skaia immediately concerned Jade. And it doesn't take long for you to realize that you're heading to the hospital. 

The hospital building is still in flames but not completely. Fortunately, you don't hear screams coming from inside the building. Instead nurses and doctors gather around patients trying to keep them alive. You find officers guarding them. 

“Tyvell.” You grab an officer you recognize and know (sorta) well. “What's going on?”

She looks at you shocked, “Vantas? I thought-Never mind. We've done our best to escort the patients out of the building, and we believe that most of them made it. We would move everyone if we had the capability.”

“What happened here?”

“Not sure. All of a sudden all the lights go out and the city was still. Then these people started fires and raids. Nothing is running. We're doing our best, but we have limited supplies. Captor told us to escort people to Peixes Mansion, but we can't do that here. We have a lot of people on life support that we can't supply or move.” 

You resist looking back at Jade, “Listen, did someone come out by the name of John Egbert? He's a human male, black hair-” 

“I know who you're talking about.” She tries to keep eye contact with you. “Gossip spreads fast even in the police station. We all know why Vriska was there. The hospital was short staffed you see. And another man volunteered to take Mr. Egbert out of the hopsital. But they got held behind from the fire. And . . And when her matesprit didn't come out, she ran inside. I swear we tried our best to keep her back! We told her to wait till everyone was out, just in case. And even then we used physical force. But, I don't know how she got away from us. A couple of us just let her go . . . She ran inside an hour ago.” 

You know too well what happened. “We have to keep Harley from finding out. We can't have anyone else running in-”

Her eyes make you turn around. You don't have enough time to tell her to stop before Jade and Bec run inside the building. And Tyvell doesn't have enough time to stop you from running in after her. 

This is stupid. This has to be the stupidest thing you've ever done. You literally ran into a burning building. Sure the part you're in right now isn't on fire, but there is smoke. You cover your mouth and nose and try to find where Jade ran. 

You think John's room was on the second floor? No. Maybe third or forth? It doesn't matter, by the time you get to the second floor you're already inhaling too much smoke. You clutch the wall and start to cough. You hear stair steps coming towards you.

It's Jade. She's upset that you're not Vriska and that you've followed her, but she's not choking. You suddenly realize how much stupider the situation has gotten. Jade and even her dog are more conditioned to be here than you. Curse your normal troll lungs. 

She doesn't say anything but pulls you away from the heavy smoke towards a hospital bedroom. She says that she'll return, you think, and she blocks the smoke from coming in with whatever is on the other side of the door. You're not sure right now. You're feeling light headed actually. Why isn't a nap a good idea. Maybe just closing your eyes for a few seconds . . . 

“Hey best friend,” a voice says with shaking tempo. 

You open your eyes weakly and find a familiar face. “Gamzee.” He's pulled up a chair to sit beside you.

“Hehe, how you doing bro?”

Something isn't right. You feel the bed and realize you're not in your home, but still in the flaming building. You look at the door to find it ajar. You look back at Gamzee's face to find his makeup smeared. 

“What happened? Why are you here? Where's Jade-”

He covers your mouth with his grimy hand. “Honk honk.”

“I tired to call you earlier and you didn't answer-”

“Honk honk.”

You are panicking. “Stop that! Jade's looking for Vriska who's looking for John, who might be dead already-”

“Honk fucking honk..” But he says it with a cruel gloom on his face.

“What are you doing? Don't you understand what's going on? I was supposed to be spending the night with Jade and then we found out”

Gamzee smacks his hand on your head. “Shut the fuck up. You almost fucked everything up. You know how many motherfuckers I had to fucking deal with to get this fucking started? A fuck ton of motherfuckers. And you almost ruined it like they tried to.”

He has never spoken to you like this . . . except . . . “What are you talking about?” 

“I wanted to fix everything. Just like it used to be. And with the city being destroyed, I finally have that chance.”

“I don't know-”

“YOU NEVER KNOW! Don't you understand the pain I FELT when you and sis broke up?”

“Nepeta?”

“You broke apart our family! My only family! And then . . you you tried to get me to stop using the slime. You said it wasn't good for me. But then everything started to be clearer. What the motherfuckers wanted me to do. How I could fix everything. But I was a scared little bitch back then. I went back to the slime and you were too defeated with you're own fucked up little life to stop me this time! But the thoughts never really went away. I always wanted to reunite again.”

You remember. You are remembering so clearly. His strange attitude before, but you had no idea. You thought it was a normal withdraw. “What do you mean by reunite?”

“I got our old house back! And Nepeta's there too! I didn't even have to break into her house. She was trying to help this troll from the pet store. I'm not stupid. And it had been a while before I had taken sophor slime. I was ordered to stop by the boss anyway. But seeing her with him. I had been flushing on that troll for a long time too. And she knew it. But it doesn't matter. She'll be back with you and I can be with him and we can be a family again.”

You find the strength to sit up and brace yourself, “What did you do to Nepeta?”

“I told you! She's just sleeping in our old place. I don't know where I toss Tav though. Things are a jumble now. But I am so much more now! The motherfucker was right!”

“Who was right? How did any of this even fucking happen?”

Gamzee starts to laugh. “You should be so proud of me, bro. I'm a big part of what happened to Skaia! Over a year ago some motherfucker talks to me about this plan. He knew of my struggles and he wanted to help the fuck out of me. Heh, I just had to be the puppet leader. You know how great I am with people. And all of the sudden, these little fucks are following me like their god! And I did shit but lie like I was told too. Be the leader I was told. I don't even know what the fuck The Change is! What a fucking fake. Where nothing is real, but everything is true.”

You can't believe. You can't believe any of it. “You. You did all this tonight? All of that for the past year? Why?”

“Don't you fucking listen?” He shrieks. “I did it to reunite us! To fix our family! I did everything for us!”

You can almost feel the tears start to run down your face. It is everything that you'd fear. Gamzee is failing and it's all your fault. You were a horrible moirail. It certainly doesn't help that you were starting to look at Kanaya that way. And now you've failed.

You quickly look around for what you can use. There's a tray with leftover food on it nearby. “Hey Gamzee, why don't you just . . we can have a quick feelings jam or something,” it is so hard trying to keep your voice still.

“Hehe,” he leans back. “You proud of this motherfucker?”

“Yeah Gamzee. I'm proud. Now just close your eyes and relax.” He does this. Of course he does this. Even after everything he's done, he's still your moirail. He believes that he's done no wrong. But you have. And you have to stop it.

You quietly remove the leftover food from the lunch tray, but you must keep talking. “So who helped you? Who told you how to do any of this?” You have the tray. Now just make a swift movement.

He laughs. “I'm not even sure, Karbro. I took so many orders from other people . . . They just mention him.” He's tone is suddenly lucid. “They called him their lord. Their destroyer. A demon in disguise. With a massive-” You make the move!

An inch away from hitting his head, Gamzee suddenly grabs your arms and throws you to the ground. He pins you down and looks at you with wild eyes. He opens his mouth filled with razor sharp teeth and lets out a terrifying “HONK!” that seems to last seconds, minutes, maybe even-

But someone or something stops Gamzee by grabbing him by the arm. He cries out in pain, and is released. Purple blood drips from his arm. He's about hit the aggressor when someone else smacks him behind hard. He falls to the side.

You manage to regain your senses that were damaged by the honk. You see Bec with Gamzee's blood around his mouth, and Jade holding a wooden chair. She is in shock.

“Oh no! I'm so sorry Karkat! I didn't know it was-I just assume if Bec is-Oh no!” She helps pull you up. “We have to get him help!”

“He tried to kill me Jade.”

“What?”

“He's probably killed others.”

“I don't understand.”

You look her straight in the eyes. “He's a monster. A fucking monster. One I'm responsible for.”

“Karkat, there's no way-”

“I have to get him out of here. Make sure he won't die or escape. You need to leave too.”

Jade stands her ground. “You know I can't do that. Not until I find-”

“We're in a fucking burning building! We shouldn't even have this conversation right now!”

“It's not that bad! For me at least! And I can't leave until I find her!”

You don't have a chance in convincing her. And you can't force her. Not now at least, and she is more capable right now than you. “For fuck's sake. When I come back, don't think you're staying!”

Jade's not happy by this that's for sure. Instead she runs back to searching with Bec. 

You hoist Gamzee over your arm and do the best you can to drag that lanky troll out of the hospital. It isn't easy with the smoke, but you somehow manage anyway. You don't even remember getting out. Everything is just a blur. It isn't until the sound of sirens and flashing lights do you wake up. 

Outside you see some ambulances and firetrucks rushing over. Actually you believe that you can hear sirens everywhere. One of the officers helps you with Gamzee. You insist that handcuffs go on him. You don't explain why. You're too tired. Someone from an ambulance helps you. They throw a blanket over you and give you water. After you stop being so lightheaded you begin to see what's so obviously wrong.

“What are you doing here? Where are you from.”

“From the Capital, officer.” the paramedic answers. “The mayor gave us swift orders to send help over immediately. Skaia has Capital assisting all around.”

“You're here?” Jade's friend must have been able to convince someone. Someone would be the mayor you guess. But it seems almost unbelievable. “How did you get here so . . .?”

“So fast? That's just the efficient work of that Capital!” 

You weren't going to say fast. More like how they were so slow. Sure you and Jade drove as fast as you could to get here, but you had to walk around most of the time. You're sure that the sun is about to rise. And why didn't they have another city that's closer send help? Why didn't you do that? Ugh, you'll make up excuses for yourself later. But something isn't right. These Capital people are almost too . . . prepared.

But no one else seems to notice your same concerns or if they did they don't care. This is a miracle to them. “A motherfucking miracle,” you whisper to yourself. You look back at where Gamzee is being held up. You don't know if he's awake or not.

The paramedic receives a call from his transmitter, he goes back to you. “Officer Vantas? We searched that house like you said and your suspicions are confirmed.” You really wish they weren't. “Miss Leijon was found in critical condition. Most likely from a beating. We are doing our best to save her.”

You take a deep breath, “Thank you.” 

The hospital doors burst open. Paramedics rush out with three gurneys and others rush towards them. You can't see who is on them, but you can tell that one of them is covered over a white blanket. The paramedics rush into ambulances to either save those still alive or do whatever with the one who isn't. A rush of panic hits you. 

But it is stopped when you see Jade and Bec exiting the hospital. You run over to her but are hesitant on how to react. 

Jade looks at you and you can see tears start to form. She covers her mouth and and starts to cry. You do your best to comfort her in your arms. 

You know that today is over, but the problems are still to come.


	5. FIVE

A troll lies in her bed about to wake up. Her eyes flutter slowly as the brightness of the florescent lights hit her. Her body is numb from all the medication being pumped into her, but it doesn't take her long to find a dear friend.

“Jade?” The woman looks down on the troll and throws her hands over her mouth to hold back a sob. Jade is sitting on the right while wearing a few bandages of her own.

“Vriska. I'm so happy-I didn't know if you were going to-thank goodness you're awake.” Vriska looks at Jade confused.

“What wrong? Why are you so upset? Come here-” Vriska tries to sit up but notices an imbalanced. She turns to her left to find her left arm missing. She looks back at Jade even more confused when she notices that her vision is impaired. Vriska raises her right hand to touch her left eye to find it bandaged over, but she can still feel the third degree burns under it.

“You need to lay down, Vriska,” Jade tries to push her to lay down, but isn't certain where to put her hand. Fortunately, Vriska lies down, and Jade holds her remaining hand.

Vriska looks over Jade's bandages, “What happened to you?”  
Jade forces herself to smile, “To me? What about to you?”

“Please Jade, I'm tough.” The troll says matter-of-factually, “I can hand-I can handle this.”

“You're an awful liar, Vriska,” Jade says with a full smile on her face.

Vriska returns the look, “No, I'm simply the best. Now don't change the subject.”

“Well this,” Jade gestures to her bandages, “is what happens when you run into a burning building. I'm almost healed, the doctors are just . . . insistent. And I don't want them too suspicious on why I've healed so fast.”

The troll's face drops, “The hospital . . . Wait, where are we?”

“At the Capital's hospital. You've been out for a week. You're being given full treatment and are welcomed to stay as long as you need.”

“No thanks, I'm already done with this place.”

“Well, it's a gift from Capital's mayor, without him we wouldn't be able to save Skaia.”

“The Mayor? How's Feferi doing about this?”

“She could be doing better. She did her best with the situation, but she's still getting complaints. While the Mayor here is taking all the glory.”

Vriska lowers her eyes, “Fuuuuuuuuck. How's everyone else doing?”

“Vriska.” Jade's tone gets serious.

“What?” She looks back at her friend annoyed.

“You haven't asked about John.”

Vriska grits her teeth, “I figured that was obvious.”

Jade gets up and pulls a wheelchair over. “Come on, I have something to show you.”

Vriska gets into the wheelchair, with the help of Jade, and the two leave the hospital room and go down the hall. “You better not be getting my hopes up, Jade.”

Jade paps her head, “Trust me.”

They arrive at a closed hospital room. Jade knocks on the door. A little bit of scuffling is heard from inside, and then Karkat opens the door. He has his own set of bandages.

He looks at Jade, “Oh.” He looks at Vriska. “Oh!” Karkat opens the door fully.

John sits in a hospital bed upright and awake. He looks at Vriska and gives a gentle wave. The only reaction he seems to be able to manage.

Vriska is shocked for a few seconds, but tries to leap out of her wheelchair to get to him. Jade and Karkat are fast enough to stop her.

She is wheeled over, “John. You're awake.”

“Hey Vriska. Apparently, I got you into a mess.” He hold the right side of her face with his hand.

Vriska leans into it. “I don't care. You're here now. With me.”

“I'm sorry I was gone for so long-”

“Stop! I don't ever want to hear you blame yourself.” A couple blue tears hit John's warm hand. “I certainly have a story to tell you.”

John grins, “Jade and Karkat have told me some of it.” Vriska scowls.

“Hey,” Karkat injects defensively, “I only said the good stuff. . . . And some of the bad stuff. A lot of annoying stuff too. I can't help if you made mistakes. What am I supposed to do? Keep the away from this pathetic excuse for life?”

“Karkat,” Jade warns.

But John laughs, “You're so funny, Karkat.”

Vriska raises an eyebrow to Jade, but she changes the subject.

“John waited by your side as much as he could before the nurse forced him back to his room,” Jade comments.

Vriska sighs deeply but bolts her head away. “John! Your dad!” John closes his eyes and frowns.

Jade explains, “He didn't make it, Vriska. He was trying to save John, but the fire was too much.”

“I saw.” Vriska holds John's hand. “He was a good man, John.”

They look into each others eyes. “Thanks, Vriska.”

Karkat quickly looks around the room and grabs Jade's arm, “Looks like you two have some catching up to do. Let's leave them, Jade.” He pulls her out of the room and closes the door behind them.

The troll lets go of her arm and leans against the door, “Ugh, I could barely deal with John gazing _lovingly_ at Vriska when she was sleeping. I don't need to watch them have sloppy make outs.”

Jade pokes Karkat in the shoulder playfully, “I thought you liked romance stories?”

“No, I like romantic-comedies! Besides, it's hard for me to believe that someone actually loves-ugh-Vriska.”

“Hey!”

“Oh you're too absurd to make any sense to me. You'd love a wolf it was in the middle of devouring you.”

“Okay, you've been stuck in the hospital too long.” Karkat merely grumbles to himself. Jade softly touches his arm, “Have you visited him?”

Karkat looks at her touch and then into her eyes, “Sort of. I saw what security he's under. Gamzee isn't going to get out for a long time.”

“I know this is hard for you.”

“It's for the best. I wasn't helping him, and he was a danger to everyone and himself. I'm just glad that Nepeta wasn't . . .Well it took a lot to keep Equius from killing him.”

Jade removes her hand, “Have you heard anything new about who he worked for?”

“No, he doesn't even know. He had all these people working under him, but we can't even get a hint of who he worked for.”

“I've noticed you talking to Kanaya a lot more.”

Karkat grits his teeth, “It feels too soon.”

“You need someone to talk to, we all do.” And a second later, Jade pulls him in for a hug. “Things are going to get better. I can tell.” Karkat lets her hug him, but doesn't take the full embrace. He appreciates it though.

“So, when do you think the wedding will be?”

Jade pulls away, “Vriska always told me that she'd marry John as soon as the doctors will let him out. But it looks like she'll have to wait for the doctors to willingly release her. I'll probably be planning with her from her bed.”

“Sounds like fun.”

“Yeah. Hey, thanks for spending time with John.”

Karkat rolls his eyes, “That asshole actually like's what I spurt from my mouth. He thinks it's funny like I'm a goddamn clown! But it all makes sense, this is the only creature alive that can stomach Vriska, then he can definitely deal with me.”  
“Okay, it's time for you to go home. I'll see you tomorrow. We need to get back to Skaia to help out.”

Karkat starts to walk away, “Skaia's getting better, isn't it?” Jade doesn't say anything.

She instead walks away. Jade wasn't comfortable with what was going on in the Capital. Karkat was suspicious at first, but gave up quickly enough. But Jade won't forget what Karkat told her when she first got her bandages, “They were too prepared for this disaster, weren't they?”

But like everyone else, any doubts they had left after being so tired out by that night's events. Not Jade though. But she wants to give up, follow like everyone else. Grandpa always taught her to never close an eye in a hunt, maybe this is from that. To have a mind at peace though, Jade would pay anything for that. She's spoken to a few old friends about it, but nothing she can act upon.

She's starting to regret not confronting the Mayor of the Capital when she met him for the first time the other day. He personally handed out medals of honor to everyone that helped out in that disaster. And everyone loved it. “Maybe I'm overreacting,” Jade thinks aloud. She turns a corner and sees a couple of familiar faces being very personal with each other.

“Oh!” she exclaims without thinking. The two break away and look at her. One of them blushes dark green.

“Hello, how are you doing, Jade?” Rose asks calmly.

“Uh,” Jade looks over to Kanaya who is still embarrassed, but manages to firmly grasp Rose's hand. “I'm fine? Vriska is awake.”

“Oh good, we were hoping to visit our favorite patients. Let's go Kanaya,” she starts to lead Kanaya.

Jade stops Rose, “Wait, can we talk for a bit, Rose? Alone?” Kanaya and rose exchange looks, but Kanaya moves on. Jade pulls Rose close to her to whisper. “I need to talk to you about Scratch.”

“Oh?”

“He was found dead the other day.”

“Oh dear.” Rose keeps a consistent and obviously practiced reaction.

“We just wanted to know if you knew anything about it.”

“What?”

“Well you were his student and you do work under him.”

Rose continues to look directly at Jade, “Of course. No I know nothing. Are you saying he was murdered?”

“Well,” Jade sighs and leans against the wall, “Signs point to that. But there's a lot of other weird stuff going on about his death. Like the fact that his staff didn't return to work for days, and that they were all ordered to take a break. But it doesn't matter, we're spread too thin. Everyone above me is demanding we let this go as he just had a heart attack. So if he _was_ murdered, then whoever did it is going to get away.”

“Then, why are you asking me?”

Jade shrugs, “I wanted to give you an excuse to tell you. He seemed important to you, but you know how I felt about him.”

“Hate him.”

“Yeah,” Jade admits, “I'm pretty sure he was up to something shady-”

“No.” Rose interrupts, “I hate him.”

“Rose?”

She looks like she's about to cry, something Jade's never seen or imagined seeing before. Rose pulls her friend close for a hug and whispers in her ear, “I didn't kill him. I wanted to, but I didn't. I tried, but I didn't. I hate him so much.”

Jade stays still from the shock of this turn of events, but whispers back, “What did he do to you?”

“Everything.” Jade feels Rose shaking in her arms. “Please don't tell Kanaya. Please. I'll talk to her on my own, but we're so happy right now. I don't want to mess it up with her again.”

“Rose, do you know who killed him?”

“I _saw_ who killed him.”

“You know I can't know to protect you.”

“I know!” Jade can feel feel hot tears hitting the back of her shirt. “I just had to let it out! He was right, I wasn't the one to kill him. I don't know what would happen to me if I did it.”

Jade has to pull her dear friend away, and she gets a good look at her. Make up smeared, eyes red, and tear stains everywhere. Rose, a girl who could hide any emotion, was broken. And Jade had a pretty good idea who taught her how to hide those emotions in the first place.

Jade did the only thing she could, “Well Rose, I know things have been pretty tough lately. Maybe you should seek counsel from you mom. You two are talking, right?” Rose nods. “Yeah, it's sucks that we can't find out who killed Scratch, but we will move on. How about you go to the bathroom and take a breather? I'll join you and Kanaya and Vriska and everyone else in a few minutes.”

Rose squeezes Jade's arm and goes to the bathroom. Jade takes a deep breath and starts to go outside for a break. She's never needed a cigarette more than before.

 

. . .

 

But somewhere else in the Capital, preparations where being made. In a large, old fashion building where rules are made, a mayor addresses his secretary.

“How's the audience?”

“A full house, my lord.”

“Thank you, Snowman. And Scratch?”

“No longer an asset.”

“Good.” The mayor rubs his chin still able to feel the work of many plastic surgeons. “How are our friends?”

A Black woman in a green and black business formal outfit smiles at him. “Crocker is preparing to gain all of Scratch's belongings as part of his will; she will use ten percent of it for charities. She will stay there following you orders. The Felt is following your orders and keeping calm. The Midnight Crew is furious and claiming to be tricked. And our little side project is disorganized, and a lot of them died after taking too many unauthorized drugs. We can fix this with a new leader. No one important was taken except for Makara.”

“A reasonable loss. He was fun though. I was looking forward to pelting him with bullets afterward.”

The woman adjusts her hat, “I can work something out if you desire?”

“No need. I'll be too busy with this takeover.”

“Shall we go address the press then?”

The mayor stands up and his secretary helps him put on a large green coat. She then hands him his cane and opens the door for him. He walks through the building with a menacing grin that he slowly transforms to a joyous one as he gets outside to meet the press.

“My dear citizens of the Capital! It is my pleasure to tell you that the rebuilding of Skaia is going faster than we anticipated. It is of course due to our help that Skaia will be better than ever. And I know that the Capital and Skaia will be working together for a long time.” He turns to look at Peixes, who is sitting behind him clearly faking a smile. “Isn't that right, Mayor Peixes?” The sea troll smiles and waves to the audience, as commanded before hand. He knows that she'll do anything in her power to escape his grasps, but there is no hope. “Yes, it is a bright future for Skaia in our hands.” He looks at the audience. They cheer. Many reporters take pictures. He sees tomorrow's headline “Capital Mayor: Savior of Skaia.” Everything is going according to plan.

But he can still spot some irregularities. Like two blonde adults that are furiously watching him from the back. The stand with a couple of dark haired children with glasses that cheer with the rest of the audience. Only the other two seem to be disgusted with him. Good. It'll make things more fun.

The sea troll stands up and speaks into the small mic she was given. “Thank you, Mayor English. I'm sure Skaia can look forwards to many bright days ahead of us.” He smiles back at her.

“A bright future indeed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. We're almost done. Comments are nice.


End file.
